First things first As always! I want to say Thanks You to Benjamin O. and Eileen P. for your kind donations to the site. It may sound like a repeat but I do truly appreciate you both for taking the time. Thanks Benjamin and Eileen

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OK, I figure it’s about time to just put out a little info about the snow contest seeing how new visitors come everyday to the site. These are a couple of early morning posts that I made in our Facebook group which by the way is open to all snow lovers and haters too. Over 200 members sharing pictures and stories and growing each day Click Here to Join The Facebook Group

This is just to give all a little info on the snow stats on the website. For 12 -13 years I’ve been doing it this way and it’s worked out good and there is NO doubt it my mind it’s the best way. All of the snow stats that I use on the snow sites I get from the National Weather Service. They get them from sources across the country, blah, blah, blah and then they post the snow statistics to their site at weather.gov.

It comes down to that I need to see something posted on the National Weather Service (NWS) site so that if a reporter, a snow plow person, or pretty much anyone gets in touch with me I have something to show them. Pretty much something to cover my butt if the snow stats are being questioned. Yes, this way I can blame it on the National Weather Service, joking.

In the case of Lowell, MA I have no reason to doubt Shawn, who is the CoOp for Lowell, Mass and does the weather measurements for them about their snow totals and other stuff. It really takes a dedicated person to do what Shawn and many others do around the clock to help all of us out. Anyways Shawn has been posting some totals that he has measured for Lowell which I have no problem with. It gives us a heads up on what’s going on there There is a Good chance that Lowell, MA according to Shawn is in 1st place right now,

BUT…. Like I have done for the last 12-13 years on the Golden Snowball site, until I see it being posted on the National Weather Service I have to go with the snow totals they are showing which at last check is 100.8. I see different numbers all day long floating around online for different cities. The National Weather Service is where we get our data from and that is what we will go by. When they report we report…

Also keep in mind that it is not that unusual for statistics which show in the Now Data section on the weather service site to be behind. This has been the case since I have been checking snow stats. Most do an update once a day though. So in other words until the NWS updates I have no choice but to stick with the snow totals I see them reporting… End of Story and They Lived Happily Ever After smile emoticon

Another post I made relating to adding cities to the contest and if you know of one that has a population of 100,000 or more and can make it into the Top 25 PLEASE feel free to share it with us

This was a reply to someone asking about a couple of other cities in Massachusetts but it applies to all of the cities.

As far as I know the other cities don’t have any official snow stats. If they do I can’t find the By official I mean from the National Weather Service and stats that they consider to be official.

As far as putting other cities in the snow contest I do add several cities each season. I also remove several cities if nothing is going on snow wise there. I do check the cities that were removed from time to time. Obviously every city with a Population of 100,000 isn’t going to be listed. I’m guessing it would be over 100 and probably way more than that. I do try my best to keep it so that the top 25 cities are the snowiest but even that is hard to do. This season and Lowell, MA is a good example.

Lowell was never on the radar in the past. Because of the way this season is going someone suggested them, I researched them and they were added as they should be. Keep in mind that an update on average depending if I blog about it, do any research and so on takes 2-3 hours. This season I have made it a point to get at least two updates in. I did cut some cities a couple of weeks ago that weren’t doing much and that saved me a little bit of time. Keep in mind this is a one man show and not the Weather Channel who I’m sure has a ton of people looking up all the stuff they talk about and trust me I’m not complaining

Stephen helps out also and normally finds some fun stuff to add to the snow sites. I know he already hard at work thinking of something for next season

A big part of the FUN snow contests is that people are also suggesting a city that may have showed up on the radar and that helps me out a lot. They also make some good suggestions about a change on the site and other things. It’s the interaction with all of you snow lovers and haters that makes it fun for me. OK, the donations help too with the the time spent on the sites. I just added up the hours I put into the snow sites, mainly this one the last 4 days and it’s over 60 hours. Normally it’s around 30-40 I would say. I enjoy it though.

If anyone has a city that may be missing, mainly that would be in the Top 25 at this time in the season PLEASE feel free to let me know using the contact page above..

First, a Big Thank You Cherie B. for your donation. As always I deeply appreciate you taking the time
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Updated 1/1/2015 7 PM – Congrats to Grand Rapids, Michigan for ending 2014 as the King of the Snow Mountain and starting the new year, 2015 with the lead

Grand Rapids has been quiet just like most of the other cities lately but when they see another city trying to sneak up on them they find a way to get Mother Nature to sneeze over them and give them just enough snow to stay in the lead. I thought Buffalo was going to take the top spot but Grand Rapids managed to get just enough snowflakes. The same pretty much goes for Buffalo and Erie, Pa protecting their spots on the snow mountain. They both keep getting just enough to fend off any snowball attacks. Loving how close the race is so far and some of the lower cities are also sneaking up a little at a time. Stay Tuned
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I just wanted to say Thanks to all of you, both new to the snow site and to those of you who visit our fun snow contest season after season. Obviously if it wasn’t for you the National Snowiest Big City Contest wouldn’t be any fun. I would also like to Thank the media who continues to have fun with the snow contest year after year and help spread the word around about it. A Big Thanks to All of you for the fun, the comments, the emails and the donations. It keeps it fun and helps pass the winter months by.

We have also had several donations to the snow site through the years that help out a lot with expenses and they also offset the time that is put into the website. So far this season I figure close to 250 hours have been put into keeping the site updated. It does pull me away from my livelihood websites a little but believe me it’s a nice break and something I really love doing BTW and love seeing the new snow stats just as much as most of you do. Words can’t express how much I appreciate those of you for taking the time to make donations to the site. No this isn’t a solicitation, just a big Thanks

Below are a few statistic that I found interesting in watching the National snow site grow. Keep in mind that these stats are for the entire year and not for the snow seasons. Also keep in mind that this was one of the slowest Decembers in awhile and if it was like last season we may have hit close to a quarter of a million visitors this year

The media has also played a Huge part in getting word out to people that have never even heard of the national snow contest, The Golden Snow Globe so a Big Thanks to all of you. There are too many to name (OK, Remember ) but there have been many articles since the snowiest big city in the US contest started back in the 2009 – 2010 season. Some of the papers and sites that come to mind are Syracuse.com and the Post Standard in Syracuse, The media from both Erie and Buffalo, Erie, Pa Life on Facebook, cnycentral.com and Mike Brookins, The Washington Post, USA Today and many others. A few of the radio stations including WMCE.FM, 88.5 in Erie thanks to Captain Dan Geary and that wild and crazy guy in Billings, Montana on The Big J Show There are so many more that I will have to look up and Thanks.

The last I looked the most visitors last year (season) came from Erie, Pa and I am happy that a lot of you from Erie and posted comments and I was able to make some online friends from Erie and all across the country Of course something about Erie holding the lead and winning last season could have something to do with that stat One thing that I noticed last month if the stats were right was that The Golden Snow Globe website was ranked in the top 1000 websites visited by residents of Erie, Pa. I think with something like over half a billion sites online that was pretty cool and WTG Erie

Syracuse was second in the amount of visitors that visited the National Snow site thanks to the articles put out by Sean Kirst, Glenn Coin from Syracuse.com and the Post and also a big thanks to CNYCentral.com in Syracuse. I believe my good friends to the west of me Buffalo had the third most visitors to the site. Tens of thousand of visitors from across the United States and also from service people stationed in other countries checking to see how their home towns are doing in the winter.

I’ll be tweaking this post to add more of the media that have helped make this a fun, successful site in the near future…

Thanks again everyone and Have a Super Happy New Year which is hopefully filled with plenty of snow

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